The training of a Gimp

The holidays usually mark one thing in the US ski community: US Nationals (or Sr. Nationals) preparation. US Nationals usually occurs in the 2nd week of January, and it is used to create the U18 Scandinavian Cup and U23 Junior World Cup teams, and also provides an opportunity for stand out athletes at Nationals to be recognized by the US Ski Team coaches, and compete on the World Cup.

For a junior athlete such as myself, these teams are a great way to get your leg in the door to internationals competitions. Throughout, the hundreds of hours of training I did this year, making the Scandinavian cup team was constantly in my head, and I was gearing up to be a competitive threat at US Nationals. 

Last year skiing at US Nationals


One of the hardest things about US Nationals is figuring out how to peak for the early season races. You want to be competitive and do well, but you also want to have much more in the tank for the rest of the season. Becuase of this, my training schedule for this year (that had been planned out in April), had me doing longer distance and intervals in the summer, and as we got further along in the fall, shorten and speed everything up. The goal is to have a strong aerobic base and to be quick and sharp.

Sadly, this year, I will not be competing at US Nationals. Because of my injury in late September, I got set back in my training, and while I probably could compete in early January, I may not be as competitive as I want. It would be much more beneficial to the rest of my season to train during US Nationals and to focus on other goals. 

In order to get back in the swing of things, I have been doing a lot of distance lately. I skipped the first Midwest JNQ to train with my high school team up at the beautiful Maplelag. Although it was cold, I got in a fun 8 hours of skiing. 

It dipped below -20 at some points, but we still had tons of fun

Since we got back, I have been still focusing on easy distance, trying to get used to skiing again, and rebuilding up specific skiing muscles. I'm really bummed to miss US Nationals (and ski at Soldier Hollow), but I'm also really excited about how far I have come in the last month, and I believe that training through Nationals will really benefit me.

Early morning training ski at Maplelag

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